Apartment prices in the South are "in turmoil"

Old apartment prices are said to be decreasing, while new projects are continuously increasing in price through sales, causing market turmoil.

Old apartment prices are said to be decreasing, while new projects are continuously increasing in price through sales, causing market turmoil.

Old and new apartment prices move in opposite directions

In early November 2024, Mr. Hoang Van Ngoc, residing in District 12 (HCMC) decided to buy a 2-bedroom apartment with an area of ​​58 m2 at the Picity High Park Project, to be handed over at the end of 2023. Mr. Ngoc said that the purchase price of this apartment was 2.7 billion VND, excluding the 5% red book fee. According to Mr. Ngoc, he bought this apartment from the previous investor, at the same price as in the contract that the previous homeowner had bought.

“The previous owner did not make a profit selling because there were many projects on the market at the same time, so it was difficult for investors to sell. Only by selling at the original investment price would they find a buyer. In fact, the previous owner suffered a huge loss because they borrowed from the bank and had to pay the principal and interest for a few years,” said Mr. Ngoc.

Ms. Le Thi Hien, a broker at Picity High Park Project, said that currently, the house prices at this project have not increased much compared to before. Only the apartment product with garden handed over in 2022 currently has a higher price than the time of first purchase in 2019.

At Him Lam Phu An Project (Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City), handed over in 2018 and 2019, in 2022, the house price was at 2.7 - 2.9 billion VND/2-bedroom apartment with an area of ​​68 m2. However, in early 2023, the apartment price here decreased to 2 - 2.6 billion VND. Currently, although the market is increasing, the apartment price here is only traded at 2.5 - 2.7 billion VND/apartment.

In addition, Novaland Group's apartment projects in the area of ​​Pho Quang Street and Hong Ha Street (Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) are at 40 - 42 million VND/m2. This price is lower than in 2022 - when the house price here is from 45 million VND/m2 or more.

Data from Batdongsan.com.vn shows that the average asking price of old apartments in Ho Chi Minh City has been decreasing, by 4% and 11% respectively compared to the same period last year. The level of interest in this segment in the market has also decreased, by 3% and 26% respectively.

Meanwhile, in newly opened projects, prices increased by 10 - 20%. For example, at the King Crown Infinity Project in Thu Duc City (HCMC), the selling price in 2023 was at 110 - 130 million VND/m2, but up to now - when the upper floors of the building are under construction, the selling price has increased to 120 - 160 million VND/m2.

At the Urban Green Project on National Highway 13 (Thu Duc City), which is in the final construction phase, the current selling price offered by the investor is 2.5 - 2.8 billion VND/unit, compared to 2.3 billion VND/unit in 2023.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, General Director of DKRS Real Estate Company, said that in reality, the project's price increase for each sale is the investor's calculation, because each sale will have to increase by 3 - 10%, depending on the customer's interest. This price increase is to ensure that the first customers see the profit and the next customers see that the project has a good price increase for investment.

Market starting to cool down?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Anh, Deputy General Director of Batdongsan.com.vn, said that with the apartment market having experienced nearly a year of hot growth, the end of the year is the time when many investors are transferring their assets. However, high land prices, falling profit margins and constantly added new supply have caused buyers' sentiment to cool down compared to the beginning of the year.

The number of successful transactions from November 2024 to now has started to slow down compared to previous months, partly because many new projects have opened for sale, partly due to high prices.

In addition, Mr. Quoc Anh also said that according to a survey by Batdongsan.com.vn, up to 86% of current home buyers aim to make a profit by surfing the wave, meaning they buy an apartment and then wait for the price to increase or wait for the house to be handed over and the price to increase before selling.

However, many brokerages and investors themselves said that the number of successful transactions from November 2024 to now has started to slow down compared to previous months, partly because many new projects have been opened for sale, partly because of high prices. In addition, investment customers are "stuck" in projects that have not been released, so the cash flow is not enough to continue investing in new projects.

“Another part is that there are quite a few customers who specialize in real estate investment and are in the bad debt group of the bank. These customers invested in buying resort real estate projects in previous years and were committed by the investor to pay the bank interest, but then the investor did not pay the bank interest for the customers, causing the customers to jump to the bad debt group. Therefore, this group of customers cannot buy houses with bank loans, so the market has lost a lot of these specialized investment customers,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Hau, General Director of Asian Holdings Real Estate Joint Stock Company.

According to Mr. Hau, currently, the level of customer interest in apartment products is not entirely good. Especially in projects that were opened for sale in the middle of the year and are still open for sale, customers are starting to pay less attention. Instead, they pay more attention to new projects. In addition, customers are currently waiting for prices to decrease or for good policies to buy houses, so the market is quite slow.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/batdongsan/gia-chung-cu-phia-nam-dang-loan-nhip-d232357.html